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Opinion: Lawmakers Corrupted by Drug Money Ignore Marijuana Harms

DeForest Rathbone is a leader in the parent’s movement which has been active since Nancy Reagan’s campaign and responsible for a 50% drop in youth drug use.

....a federally-illegal marijuana industry in the U.S. will be shamefully responsible for continuing the dope-money-fueled destruction of our children, families, schools and communities...”

— DeForest Rathbone

LEONARDTOWN, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES, March 17, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ -- By DeForest Rathbone, Originally published by Parents Opposed to Pot March 2, 2017

The marijuana issue illustrates a major reason for the public’s extremely low rating of legislators. News reports throughout the nation confirm that marijuana-money driven pot legalization endangers families in many other states. Here is an example from Maryland:

More than 16 news articles from 8/16/16 through 10/23/16 reveal a virtual feeding frenzy among Maryland state legislators, marijuana bureaucrats and would-be pot contractors. They all cited serious squabbling over access to profits from the federally-illegal addictive dangerous child brain poison, marijuana being falsely promoted as “medicine” under drug-trafficker-friendly Maryland State laws.

Currently, Maryland state legislators are considering additional proposals that would further entrench their previous misguided pro-pot public-health endangering laws.

But two recent official federal government reports categorically confirm from numerous scientific studies that smoked marijuana is not medicine but instead is a dangerous Schedule 1 drug that endangers the health and safety of users, especially youths. And is a major gateway drug leading to addiction to other deadly drugs.

The new FDA and DEA report of 8/11/16, reaffirmed the many previous scientific studies stating that “there is no medical use for smoked marijuana.”

And the new November 2016 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Addiction stated categorically “None of the permitted uses under state laws alters the status of marijuana and its constituent compounds as illicit drugs under Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act.”

Additionally, the 2016 Surgeon General’s report stated, “Marijuana use, in adolescents in particular, can cause negative neurological effects. Long-term, regular use starting in the young adult years may impair brain development and functioning… And marijuana use—particularly long-term, chronic use or use starting at a young age—can also lead to dependence and addiction.” Thus also it confirms marijuana as a gateway drug.

Further, annual national drug overdose death rates currently reported by the CDC, are skyrocketing at all-time high levels and increasing rapidly. To illustrate the enormity of this U.S. drug death plague, if caskets of the 500 victims of drug-related deaths that occur daily in the U.S. were stacked up alongside the Washington Monument, they would extend to nearly twice the height of that monument! Every day, 24/7!

Therefore, we parents urge our Governors and State Legislators to immediately recognize the imminent danger to all U.S. citizens from this unprecedented drug overdose death public health crisis. We ask you to end the drug-money fueled attempts to create and promote a dangerous marijuana industry in our nation. Instead we implore you to adopt protective laws such as those suggested in our Washington Times ad.

Otherwise, those who continue to support the current headlong rush to enable and promote a federally-illegal marijuana industry in the U.S. will be shamefully responsible for continuing the dope-money-fueled destruction of our children, families, schools and communities throughout our country.

DeForest Rathbone is a Board Member, Parents Affected By Addiction (PABA). He can be reached in Leonardtown, MD, 301-994-2733, DZR@prodigy.net

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